Chapman was originally the vocalist for Farinas, who released the single "You'd Better Stop" b/w "I like it like that" in August 1964. (However, lead vocals on that single were performed by Jim King.) He moved on to join The Roaring Sixties and were later renamed Family in 1966. In 1967 the first single was released, "Scene Through The Eye Of A Lens", something of a psychedelic classic. Chapman wrote most of Family's songs with Charlie Whitney and their debut album Music in a Doll's House was released in 1968. Their bluesy, experimental rock music gained them a reputation as a progressive underground band.
Deluxe extended version of the 1974 album from Michael Chapman featuring 6 bonus tracks and sleeve notes…
Roger Chapman is best known for his barbed-wire voice, used to front British '70s rock acts Family and Streetwalkers. He began a long-awaited solo career in 1978 that led to over a dozen full-length releases. Never heard of them? It's not surprising: album-wise, he camped out in Germany for 20 years. His first album and tour got high praise in his British homeland, but critics cut into him soon after. When the hassle-free German market beckoned, Chapman began to focus his subsequent work there, where he had become a musical hero, "the working-class artist." Chapman split with his longtime writing partner, Charlie Whitney, after the breakup of Streetwalkers in 1977.
Tracy Chapman hit #1 on both the US & UK album charts. The album was critically acclaimed and helped to launch the 1990s female singer-songwriter movement, which included artists like Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan. The first single "Fast Car" was very popular, peaking at #5 in the US and #6 in the UK. The second single "Talkin' Bout a Revolution" was less successful reaching only #75, but received much airplay and also charted in the Adult Contemporary and Modern Rock charts amongst others.
In 1989, the album was rated number 10 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Albums of the 80's." In 2003, the album was ranked number 261 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Parallel Times. Dizzying constellations of notes netted within the soundboard of the harpsichord, quill-plucked and sent spinning in darting arcs and ascending steps. . . Harmonic fog adrift from which notes slip out in silvery streaks, gleaming with passion, while some, disconsolate, fall into dark silence snuffing out their glow. . . Cymbals sizzle and resonate, ceding space to the crackle of shells shaken. Wood, skin, clay all brushed, touched and tamped, honed into accents and beats, breathing between the firefly flurries criss-crossing through their time…